Result of Silicone Tube Intubation in Patients with Epiphora Who Showing Normal Finding in Dacryocystography

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To Compare treatment results on silicone tube insertion according to the region and severity of resistance in lacrimal probing for functional nasolacrimal duct obstruction patients who complained of epiphora but are shown to be normal in lacrimal syringing and dacryocystography. METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted with 40 subjects (42 eyes) who had silicone tube insertion because of functional nasolacrimal duct obstruction. A comparison was made of post-operational patient satisfaction by grading (0~3) according to the region and the severity of resistance and whether the resistance region was singular or multiple resistance regions were found on probing. Success was defined as a grade of more than one point. RESULTS: Two eyes had no resistance regions, 28 eyes had one resistance region, and 12 eyes had more than two resistance regions on lacrimal probing. There was no statistical significance in the ranking of post-operative satisfaction among theses groups. There was also no difference among the groups for post-operative satisfaction according to obstruction site. CONCLUSIONS: Most functional nasolacrimal duct obstruction patients showed partial obstruction of the nasolacrimal duct on probing. Since functional nasolacrimal duct obstruction is not possible, we must treat patients for partial nasolacrimal duct obstruction, for wihch silicone tube insertion is thought to be effective.